FTPD Receives First Of Four Donated Bicycles For Community Unit
The Franklin Township Police Department’s bicycle unit just had its fleet increased by four bicycles, thanks to the generosity of a Hunterdon County based company.
The owners of Summit Nutritionals International, of Lebanon, were formally thanked for the donation April 14 with a short ceremony at the Hamilton Street headquarters of the department’s Community Relations Bureau.
The donors, Dr. Cesar DePaço and his wife, Deanna Paovani-DePaço, are no strangers to helping out police departments. They’ve made their name in police philanthropy through the donation of about 150 K-9s to departments in the United States and Europe.
They’ve also donated fully equipped vehicles, guns, ammunition, and bullet-proof vests, Dr. DePaço said.
The Franklin connection was made through Officer Malcolm Belvin, a member of the bicycle unit, who approached Dr. DePaço about a donation.
It didn’t hurt that Deanna Paovani-DePaço spent her early years in the township.
DePaço said he was spurred in 2013 to start donating to police departments because of his “love and respect for law enforcement. That’s all.”
“We recognize the challenges that everyone experiences on a daily basis, from the minute they get out of bed to the minute they go to sleep,” Deanna Depaço said. “So the extra support that the law enforcement aspect can receive helps emotionally, helps physically and it helps the community as well.”
“There’s too much backlash and harsh treatment and negative perspective on law enforcement today, even several years ago, and we just hope to open up the realm of thinking that police are good, community is good, the two can work together,” she said.
Public Safety Director Quovella Spruill said that donations such as the DePaços made tell officers that they are being appreciated.
“I believe when we get attention like this, when we get support from benefactors, they realize that the work they are doing is not going unnoticed,” she said. “That’s the best feeling, when you’re recognized. I can praise them all day long, but when it comes from outside, I think it’s extra-special, it means more to them.”
“We love to see the expressions and the feelings,” Deanna DePaço said. “Some of these guys and women … sometimes I’m sure it’s hard to get out of bed. If everyone feels and knows and tangibly sees there are people who have their back, it helps everyone carry on.”
Spruill said the department’s budget is primarily eaten up by salaries, so there isn’t a lot of extra money to buy things such as specially made bicycles for police work.
Those are the departments the DePaços want to work with , Cesar DePaço said.
“We don’t donate to police departments that have budgets to get whatever they want,” he said. “We like to help police departments, like Franklin Township, that need help and may not have the budget for it.”
Spruill said the bicycle patrols help the officers look more relatable to residents. And, she said, they’re not as intimidating as officers rolling up in a police car.
“You see officers in a police car, you think, oh, they’re going to take me away,” she said. “You see officers on a bike, well, they can’t put you on a bike …”
Two of the specially outfitted bikes – complete with flashing red and white lights and sirens – have been delivered, with two more on the way.
Although its began several years ago patrolling primarily Hamilton Street, the bicycle squad now rides throughout the township.
2021 Caesar DePaço
Read MoreFTPD Receives Donation of New Police Bicycles and Gives Gift Baskets to College Sweepstakes Winners
SOMERSET, NJ – It was a day of giving at the Franklin Township Police Department’s community relations bureau as the department accepted a donation of four new police bicycles and then gave out gift baskets to winners of its college sweepstakes.
The bicycles were donated by Caesar DePaço and his wife Deanna Paovani-DePaço of Summit Nutritionals International, Inc. The couple has donated everything from police bikes and motorcycles to funding over 150 K-9 units in New Jersey, Florida, France, Portugal and will soon expand to Brazil.
“All the equipment that police departments need and if they don’t have a budget in order to get those items, that’s when we step in,” said DePaço. “We like to help police departments like Franklin Township.”
The almost $8,000 donation supplied by the couple will give the department’s bicycle unit the equipment they need to continue Public Safety Director Quovella Spruill’s effort to bring community-based policing practices to Franklin.
“It makes them more visible, it puts the officers down on their level,” she said. “They’re not in a police car, where people associate the police car with oh they’re going to throw us in the back and arrest us.’”
Spruill said the bicycle program has been a hit with both the officers and the community, with residents noticing when technical issues with the two old bikes they relied on kept officers from riding around town.
“When we weren’t doing it for a few weeks … people started noticing. We were getting reports, things like ‘We haven’t seen the bike patrol,’” said Spruill.
Officer Kenneth Reid, one of the members of the FTPD bike patrol, said that when they first started riding around town, people would do a double-take.
“People started to love our presence … they see us on every angle. We ride to businesses, to homeowners, we ride here (Hamilton Street) and to the 55 and older communities,” he said. “We ride everywhere and there’s something when people go out there and see you, when the community sees you out there on your bike, it’s just different.”
Paovani-DePaço said that the pair donated to Franklin to lend extra support to the town’s officers.
“There are challenges across the board, so the extra support that the law enforcement aspects can receive helps emotionally, helps physically, helps mentally, and it helps the community as well,” she said.
The FTPD also gave out gift baskets to college-bound Franklin students who won the department’s sweepstakes aimed at providing them with items that help them as they make the leap to university. The department received donations that they thought could be useful for teenagers and young adults going to school, so they put the word out and presented the winners with their gifts today.
2021 Caesar DePaço
